Bitcoin Forum

Some guy managed to scam a huge amount of bitcoins on 4/20 'sale weekend' where the site doesn't charge escrow fees, so there's a crazy amount of orders. Tony, their so-called Top #1 selling vendor decided to make hundreds of listings that were auto finalized instantly then disappeared. The estimated loss is at least 100k in bitcoins. Has to be the biggest bitcoin scam of all time, even better than the 643BTC that guy goxxed out of MtGox back in 2011. (allinvain huge loss doesn't count, never was any proof). He also lured fools off site to scam an unknown amount through a secret store he set up.

TONY 2012 - invisible drugs

If this is real damn bro that is crazy.  :o

why would mt. gox's june hack count but allinvain's claim of coins stolen don't?  allinvain's was a bigger amount, in terms of dollars, but not the biggest in actual bitcoins involved.  that prize goes to the linode hacking.   bitcoinica alone had 40k bitcoins stolen and add to that was smaller chunks from slush and others at the same time.  more than $200k u.s. dollars worth at the time.

sr can probably do what paypal does by holding funds for a couple weeks so that there is less incentive for a seller to attempt this scam.

SR does that but you can 'finalize' early. I don't know why exactly, but I think people do it with trusted sellers.

Damn... LOL it really sucks for new buyers at SR because you have to finalize early and stuff like this can happen to you :\

That is one of the reasons why I really hate SR. There are so many scammers on the site and it's just a mess. Like yes the site has the good things but the site has plenty and I mean plenty of negatives.  :-\

I would be willing to buy these  8)

WOW! Thats crazy! I'm a pretty paranoid person and for good reason. Although, thats the problem with SR. There is little to no buyers protection just due to the nature of the business. In light of this, I'm now going to call my cousin who had a doctorate in cryptology and have him lock up my computer tighter than the pentagon.

Calling your friend to discuss cryptography over the phone doesn't rank very high on the "paranoia" list.

Not surprised. I only auto-finalize on purchases under $30 with trusted vendors.

I'm going to get him to come over to my house thank you very much! I'm not stupid.  No need to be condescending.

I don't know about Silk Road but I sell on Black Market Reloaded and so far it is going really well.  I don't mean I think you cannot get scammed there but that there are a lotta good people on BMR and it's a good community.  Maybe because it is very small there are lower percentage of scammers?  I can think of a couple that tried to run scams lately but were caught quick and talked about on BMR forum, so people knew to stay away.

That guy was DEA. That was the only possible thing they could do, undermine the confidence in the service ;)

source kthx

a very interesting story.

Unfortunately the internet is full of scammers if you can't see someone face to face or have any kind of info verification on them.  This makes the anonymous aspect of BTC not very useful in the real world.

Anybody can easily sell some small stuff for quick rep on their and then do a big scam later on- that can happen on Ebay as well but at least you have paypal protection on there as a buyer- SR not so much.

I wonder if the amount of scamming etc is due to the kind of trade that this site mainly deals in, or if its just human nature. When it comes down to it the whole idea of Silk Road is brilliant. A pretty much open worldwide marketplace that, even with the escrow service, exists due to the trust of people who have never met. In the end it doesn't seem any more corrupt than the legitimate buisness world. 

Eh, big deal.

Drugs +  scam?  Shocking? 

Its like fishing -- when you cast your line out over and over and over again, eventually a fish is going to take it.  Even if you intentionally place your line in a spot where you think there are no fish, it is still only a matter of time before some stray fish comes along and takes the bait.

If you use/buy/sell drugs, it's usually just a matter of time before the hammer drops.

Drugs are not the issue.  Human nature is.  Some people want something for nothing, and they work their scams on eBay as much as Silk Road or Black Market Reloaded.  It reminds me of what I saw on the forum over at BMR.  A guy selling stolen credit card numbers was called a scammer, and his customer wanted to get the guy banned.  And the site owner was like "Ummm- so, you buy stolen credit card numbers from this guy because you want to use them to steal, and now you want him banned because he is a thief?"  And really- isn't that just the truth? 

I agree. That's why I stopped smoking cigarettes as well as drinking alcoholic or caffeinated beverages. Drugs are bad mmmkay.

;D

+1 And nothing but the truth!

Wow, this is crazy news....

some scource for ANY! of the claims made here???

Allegedly, a lot of talk about this on the SR forums. I don't use the service and don't feel like scrounging around for whatever address they're using, now.

If the stories told are accurate, it could've been prevented if people just properly used the escrow service SR provides at no charge.

Why didn't they just use the free escrow service?

Because sellers don't trust that new buyers will ever release the escrow. Really, that's a problem that SR should try resolving.

I haven't been there in ages, but doesn't it auto-release after thirty days, still?

I have no idea. I'm just working off of what I've heard, so I'm guessing that you're actually right. In that case, I don't really understand those people...

curious where 100k came from.... ? or did you pick a number at random ?

Is it 100k BTC or $100k  ? If its $100k then its nowhere near the biggest BTC theft so far.

What's the biggest BTC theft in $ then?

-fankih-

43k BTC ~ $250k stolen in the Linode heist

People can argue that allinvain 25K BTC were robbed when they were valued at $500k, but that's yet to be proven.

Look at the upside, you lost anonymous money over the internet to your drug dealer. Sucks, but it's better than the dealer on the corner deciding to rob you. At least here you don't have an extra ten thousand in bills to get the knife out of your kidney.

You entrusted your money with a stranger on the internet (by releasing escrow early) in exchange for a particularly good deal. The stranger took it and ran. Why are you still surprised?

This problem has been solved somewhat.  On Silk Road, I just ask that if people have less than 5 recent positive feedbacks they need to release the funds (called "finalizing early") in order to have the goods shipped.  If somebody is a trusted member this is not required.  So far, so good.  No system is 100% foolproof but the escrow services on Silk Road and Black Market Reloaded are pretty darn good. 

How will newbs solve the problem when you decide to scam them and run with their money without sending their orders? ;)
BTW, I bought from you here on the forum and have no complaints. I'm just saying that the system isn't perfect.
Even with escrow, sellers are bound to be scammed by buyers who say they didn't get the stuff and newbs are bound to be scammed by sellers who ask them to "finalize early".

There is a lot of sellers that require FE even if you have good stats or not... most people will FE without quesiton...


I sir got ripped off by Tony75 trying to buy something for a friend... Well the douche took off with my friends coins.... He would only take early finalization on any 420 sale order... I ordered from him before sucessfully... So i didn't see the big deal...... well there goes almost 30 btc....

LOL im sure you dont... A  lot of vendors offer sale prices and require FE to get this sale price.....

I learned my lesson..... I dont finalize early... Never......I may pay a seller directly if I want a sample or something smaller then what is listed....

Releases funds from escrow (SR provides this for all transactions at no cost). When the buyer pays, he pays a Silk Road account, not the seller directly. Silk Road then notifies the seller the buyer has sent funds. When the buyer confirms he's received what he ordered (when the order's "finalized," rather), escrow funds are released to the seller. If the buyer claims the product hasn't arrived after x days, they enter an arbitration process with SR staff.

Finalizing early effectively bypasses escrow altogether and sends funds immediately to the seller before the buyer confirms receipt of goods purchased.

(IIRC)

well I think its important to remember,

if a deal is too good its a scam

yeah I took a look over at SR,
now you even can't finalize for 3 days.

but one has to understand the sellers too, if they have to wait 20 days for their money.

Even worse is when the customer receive his goods but still claim it never arrived,
I don't even know how such people can get high or trip when knowing they screwed their supplier over.

That's why a lot of vendors ask for early finalization.. Money is an issue and scammers.... I for one have great stats and should never be asked for FE....

WOW, this is unfortunate, especially at a time like this.